"HWY XING" on bike path?

[squirrelitude]

I'm really kind of baffled by the new HWY XING sign where the Somerville Community Path crosses a dead-end road near Alewife:

Is this the result of some misguided legislation or city ordinance?

Comments

[elusiveat.livejournal.com]

Do you think it should be illegal to go walking or running with head-phones on?

I'm not sure how else we'd get a world where people pay attention. Many, many times while bicycling I've literally yelled "on your left!" *right* behind pedestrians who quite clearly couldn't hear anything.

The other thing that comes to mind is that, given how much faster a bicycle is than a pedestrian, I don't think the number of head-on encounters would be more than double the current frequency of bicyclists needing to come up behind pedestrians...

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

I'm really not in general in favor of making things illegal.

I *am* frustrated that there's no point in even attempting to say "on your left" to people with headphones, because I know 100% of the time they won't hear me or react. But if they were wearing headphones and keeping enough to the right that there was space to pass, or wearing them at a reasonable volume which allowed for some awareness of the world outside, or wearing them but being sure to look around occasionally (and especially whenever changing direction), that wouldn't be a problem, right?